The invention relates to a method and apparatus for cleaning a chamber.
The manufacturing or fabrication processes in certain industries produce toxic gaseous effluent. For example, chemical vapor deposition processes associated with semiconductor fabrication produces highly toxic gaseous effluent. Also, combustion processes involving the partial combustion of solid fuels discharge hot gaseous effluent. These gaseous effluent are usually heavily laden with particulate matter and must be cleaned or "scrubbed" before they can be treated and released into the environment. Typically, particulate laden gaseous effluent are introduced into a scrubbing chamber through an inlet. The particulate matter tends to adhere to the inner surface of the chamber. Various methods and apparatus have been devised to prevent, or at least slow down, the buildup of particulate matter on the inner surfaces of scrubbing chambers.
Referring to prior art FIG. 1a, a chamber cleaning mechanism is shown. The scrubbing chamber (not shown) has an inlet 1, which houses a plurality of scraping blades 2 parallel to a longitudinal axis of inlet 1. The scraping blades 2 are rigidly interconnected by three rings 3, as shown. An actuating arm 4 extends through a slit 5 in the inlet 1 and is attached to the middle one of rings 3.
Referring now to prior art FIG. 1b, actuating arm 4 is attached to a piston rod 6, which is driven by a pneumatically operated piston 7. The pneumatically operated piston 7 drives actuating arm 4 back and forth, causing the scraping blades 2 to scrape in a reciprocating motion along the inner surface of inlet 1.